Dat Nguyen’s story of faith continues in San Antonio
The San Antonio metro area seems like a nice place for Dat Nguyen to relocate his family to. His wife has two brothers here. It’s within a short drive of the couple’s hometowns in South Texas.
But how did the record-breaking Aggie linebacker and Dallas Cowboy end up in Leon Springs, dishing sports opinions on local radio and sending two of his three daughters to a Christian school in Boerne?
My profile on him in the article below sheds some light on Nguyen, whose interview with me reinforced my preconceptions of him as an approachable, “regular” guy in spite of his fame as a college and pro standout.
He grew up Catholic but not until the summer the Cowboys drafted him did he take his faith to a new level. And San Antonio is now his home where he’s increasingly speaking about this central part of his life.
via Dat Nguyen’s story of faith continues in San Antonio | Pray Tell | a mySA.com blog.
Inside his mother’s womb, Dat Nguyen escaped gunfire in a shrimp boat off the shores of Saigon, South Vietnam, nearly 40 years ago.
He was born in an Arkansas refugee camp, the youngest of six siblings, whose family later made their home in the South Texas town of Rockport.
A talented but undersized football player, he far exceeded expectations as an athlete, racking up national awards and school records at Texas A&M and then becoming the first Vietnamese American to suit up in the NFL.
A Dallas Cowboy for seven seasons, fans admired his work ethic and passion for the game.
Yet, a sense of divine destiny, he says, has always undergirded his life and is fueling a new chapter in San Antonio.
He is co-host of “The Blitz,” a local afternoon sports talk show on KZDC-AM 1250, an ESPN affiliate. The three-month-old job brought clarity to an unpredictable phase last year when he lost his assistant coaching position at A&M, he said.
He and his family relocated to Leon Springs this past summer, planting roots in a Catholic parish, Christian school and taking on new opportunities to tell his personal story of faith. On Dec. 27, he’ll be the featured speaker for the Alamo Bowl breakfast hosted by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
“I ask the Lord all the time, ‘Why did he choose me?’” he told the audience as the main speaker for last Tuesday’s Christian Business Chamber of Commerce luncheon. “There are so many other people to choose from. I think the answer is to make people fishers of men. I’m not the perfect person at all. There’s no such thing. But this is the challenge I have each and every day in my life.”
Nguyen, 37, credits his mother, a devout Catholic, for developing his faith and his upbringing in Rockport. There he attended St. Peter Parish, which his parents helped build. Most days included the rosary and Mass.
“His family overcame so many obstacles on their way to the United States,” said his wife, Becky. “His mother is the rock of that family. She is so faithful and goes to church and prays every day for each one of us. Dat has taken on that role in our family.”
For him, faith became personal on July 2, 1999 — the summer the Cowboys drafted him. His former high school shop teacher, Bill Bailey, drove with him to College Station to pick up his furniture. They chatted about the Christian faith as a relationship with God, not just a set of beliefs.
“I had been praying for him because I knew he was having a lot of success and was probably going to end up in the NFL,” said Bailey, now of Richardson. “The way he took off with his faith impressed me. He became my hero, not just as a football player but as a fellow Christian.”
Nguyen went on to absorb the mentoring of Dallas Cowboy chaplains, including the late John Webber and John Tolson. He joined the coaching staff of the Cowboys before taking a job as A&M’s linebacker coach.
But when former A&M head coach Mike Sherman was fired last year, Nguyen’s days were numbered. After he was let go, he prayed about his next step, especially since he had bought a home in Bryan and his third daughter was a newborn.
He initially accepted a job with Rackspace in San Antonio. But shortly before he started, the radio station made an offer. He has brought an inside view of the NFL to the show and snagged high-profile interviews such as Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells.
But before he said yes, he secured a commitment from management to avoid objectionable topics and advertising, including from the adult entertainment world.
He and his family attend St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church in Boerne. His two school-age daughters attend Geneva School of Boerne for its “biblical worldview,” he said. He wants to pass on the faith that sustained him in the NFL, he said.
Scars along his right arm recall the game he played once with a broken wrist. When the offense was on the field, Nguyen said he frequently prayed the rosary.
“I prayed a lot during the game. Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “The thing is, I got hurt quite a bit, and (for) the pain tolerance, it gave me the strength.”
He prays now for his post-football life.
His coaching interests — and its demands on time — have faded.
Sunday nights involves “ice cream and Bible study” in the Nguyen home.
There, he’s a dad, reading biblical books, such as James, breaking down the theology into digestible concepts for his three daughters.
“We are tourists on this Earth,” he said during his chamber of commerce talk this week. “I could leave now and get in a car wreck and go home to be with the Lord, but I hope what I did was to impact people for him.”
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Holy crap, the plethora of ending prepositions would make my Senior Year English teacher roll over in her retirement. Please stop writing.